Hi Boss, all the SS series info should be on Hendonmob.com, if not yet it will be there shortly! Thank you!

My pleasure Chk, that's why I enjoy the posts and feedback. It gives me an opportunity to explain why we do some of the things we do. I appreciate you taking the time to acknowledge my explanation. Hope to see you soon!

Frank, I'm organizing a road trip down from Ottawa, with a few buddies for the Jan 5 tournament weekend. Did I hear right from the reservations desk that poker room rate at the hotel is north of $200/night? I guess gone are the days when that was priced at $85/night?

Thanks.

Does anyone know what the rake is for the 20/40, 50/100 and 75/100 Limit Hold'em games? Thank you!

Those games are timed rake I believe. Think it was $6 or $7 every 30 mins?

Hi B, the 20/40 is $7 per half hr., 50/100 is $9 per half hr. and (assuming you meant) 75/150 is $10 per half. That's per player. Thanks for the assist Snipers! Hope that helps!

Thanks to you both - it does help indeed. I will be there this Friday and I will try and find you Frank to introduce myself. Coming down from Ottawa, Ontario and leaving Sunday, hopefully after a fixed limit session.

It’s been years since I’ve gone to turning stone. Couple questions, do you still have to purchase the stupid day pass or whatever you call it to play? And have you changed your chips at all in the last 8 years? I found about 100$ from my last trip in basement and thinking about making a trip for fun or maybe a tourney series any coming up?

Hi iTz, no more day pass, chips should still be good and yes we actually have the Winter Poker Meltdown coming up this weekend!!!

For anyone who may not receive e-mails from TS, got some good news last week: the poker room rate is back (for the hotel again, not just the Inn). Unfortunately, rates are up from where they were - now $85 and $125 (weekdays/weekends). But I'm still a fan of the change. Looks like your lobbying helped Frank!

Now just working on getting those poker room promotion coupons in the mail up here in Canada. My buddies and I had a great time a few weeks ago and are itching to return.

Frank, do you have a tentative weekend yet for the next tournament series by chance? Just want to start some planning (i.e., negotiating) with the spouses.

Hi B good to hear from you! Our next Tournament series is March Mania.. March 3rd thru March 11th. Hope you can make it!!!

Oh neat, a new schedule! Let's go take a peek!

*peeks at schedule*

Hmm, seems like it must be a mistake, looks like the main event has been downgraded to yet another $250 that has $40 of rake included. That can't be, I thought...
Gets funnier every time I read it.

As I've asked previously, without response I might add, please feel free to come in and discuss with me in person or call the office (poker desk will give you the number) instead of taking anonymous shots at what we offer to suit your needs. I will be more than happy to explain to anyone at anytime, in person, the reasoning for the schedule and it has nothing to do with minimizing our tournament players. We hold 10 to13 Main Event Tournaments a year and 14 to 16 daily tournaments a week...that's not minimizing tournament play. Of course, you are free to remain unknown, anonymous and completely misguided in your opinions, interpretations and assumptions. Times change, 2014 is completely different than 2018. If you feel your points and opinions can really make a difference for the majority of our guests and not the minority of them, this is an open chance to discuss with me...in person please...I prefer to know who I am speaking to. Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you soon..... Frankie

Frankie, not here to take shots...

I will say though it's extremely dissapointing to see another tournament get dwindled down. It's not surprising though considering the sharp decline in turnout for basically every tournament the last year. When I saw your post about the series I was really looking forward to coming down for the $570..

It seems like nothing is being done to try and address the decline, no changes are being made. Instead, tournaments are just being cut and reduced. There's clearly a problem and it doesn't seem like there's effort being put into finding and addressing it. Being 2018 is not an excuse, tournament poker elsewhere is thriving.

Just a few thoughts

- It's time for a change to the structure. No tournament should start with 600 BB, let alone $250 and $570 ones. Need to get with the times on this.

- Maybe its time change up the series you run... The timing, branding, tournaments offered. Have less main events per year, but bugger tournaments. Give people a reason to get excited.

- Scrap the big check, this is terrible. Recognize the winner of the tournament with a trophy and a standard winners photo. Don't recognize the 12 people that chopped.

Just some thoughts but clearly it's time to start switching things up... Not too long ago this casino was holding 500k plus tournaments... Now it can't even hold a single 1k and pretty soon there will be no 570s either

Thanks Frankie

Frankie has already answered this one:

I'll also throw in that a blog would be cool, if TS tournaments ever become worth talking about again.

These are not legitimate reasons for keeping the structures the way they are.

I responded before to your PM, you just chose to ignore it. You expect me to come in or call you, and what I am saying is simple-I am becoming a former customer who has been disappointed in the declining tournament options that you are offering. You've made a decision, whether it be business based or for some other reason, to continually decrease buyins and move to the model of multi-day 250s with a large amount of rake involved, and I'm simply saying that you're not serving your full customer base. That's it. I'm not going to take time out of my workday to have you lecture me on how things have changed and how the choices you've made are great for Turning Stone, nor am I going to drive the 2 hours in each direction so you can do it to my face.

As for anonymous, I would imagine that a significant portion of this thread knows exactly who I am, and that those that don't could do a fairly simple google and figure that information out. If you need assistance in doing so, feel free to PM me.

I'm of the belief that you've decided that your modus operandi in this thread is to be someone who answers questions (an excellent decision) and simply defend your current choices as to how you run your room. That's a perfectly fine decision for you to make, especially since I imagine that the voices of Boss and myself get drowned out by the, how did you phrase it?
Yeah, that. (Although I do find it odd that you're getting thousands of emails every day yet never have a tournament with that many entries...) But such an attitude results in us feeling like you're not listening to our points, which in turn doesn't result in us wanting to have a conversation with you about it.

Each time you decrease a buyin to one of your main events, I am going to make a post about it. I went to Turning Stone 3 times last year (March Mania, Empire State in May, Empire State in August). I imagine that this year will be fewer-likely just once, if at all. As Boss has said, tournament play is not dying in other places, it is thriving. If my little birdies are correct, by the end of the year a venue in Western New York will set its own record for largest prize pool for a main event in that venue's history. For those of us who enjoy playing tournaments with medium buyins and bigger prizepools, it remains unfortunate that Turning Stone is going in a different direction.

Thank you both for your posts, suggestions and opinions. I appreciate your time and effort. Thank you!

Would be nice to see a $250 100k and a $1k 250k gtd in the same series. Losing the PNIA weekend was tough.

Now we're not even seeing consistency in small to mid stakes cash. 2/5 NL gets off Friday through Sunday only and 20/40 and 75/150 LHE are generally played Friday's.

I admit, I haven't been to TS in a while since another casino opened up quite a bit closer to myself. I did enjoy that he tournaments had a varying level of buying price. Having a $250 main is... Affordable. I'm not sure if that's good or bad but it's definitely an optics issue if all you have are these tournaments. I would definitely like a bigger buy in now and again, but that's not my position to truly request since I'm such a small timer and nit extrordinaire. ( Seriously ask billybizzle, I leftthe roc poker scene for a while because my roll couldn't handle $30 tourney's at the time.)

Sent from my P00C using Tapatalk

Nice posts lately,

Frankie I too would not make the trip out to Turning Stone (4 hour drive for me) for any tournament buy in less than 1k.

I’m not exactly in your target area for customers but if I wanted to play 250 buy ins I can stay here and go to the bingo hall poker room.

Just saw them advertise on Sunday March 4th, they are going to cap the BBJ to $25k and drop the qualifications every hour until it is hit.

Starts at quad 8s I think in the morning and goes down to AAATT.
If AAATT isn't hit in the first hour, then the qualification goes to using only 1 card from your hand.

Wow the upcoming high hand promotions. Amazing, I played in the room yesterday heard the announcements and read the fliers. Awesome!!!

Anyone know how long it took to hit the BB jackpot last night?